For Badger fans who are not selected in the UW Athletic Department's upcoming football ticket lottery, rushing to other outlets to buy tickets may be the worst thing they could do.
According to Nate Lustig, co-owner of ExchangeHut.com and UW-Madison junior, asking prices for season-ticket packages are substantially higher than usual.
""On our website, the prices are currently between $350 and $600—historically above what tickets normally sell for,"" Lustig said. ""In the past, average season tickets were between $250 and about $350.""
Lustig said fans who did not get tickets should keep checking the prices on ExchangeHut and other sites, as students will randomly sell tickets for less.
""You'll always find someone ?maybe once a week or every two weeks that's gonna sell their ticket for a lower price, someone who just needs to get rid of their ticket, and they'll sell if for a lower price at any random time,"" he said.
According to Lustig, tickets are cheapest when bought individually soon before games, but he added that ""if you want the security of having a ticket for every single game, the best time is during the first week when the freshmen come back.""
He said the higher prices are likely at least partly due to the UW Athletic Department's notification e-mail blunder, but Senior Associate Athletic Director Vince Sweeney said the reason is merely that students are more excited than ever about the team.
""We sold out 10,500 tickets in three days, so I think the higher prices are just a case of an increasing demand for tickets in general,"" he said.
The Athletic Department's generated ticket lottery has seen similar enthusiasm already, with more than 2,000 entrants, according to Assistant Ticket Director Brian Evenson. The lottery, which is open until 4:30 p.m. Thursday, is expected to distribute 100 to 300 additional tickets.
With so many lottery entrants, the majority who are not selected may have to pay a high price at alternative outlets if they really want tickets. Some have suggested the Athletic Department try to regulate prices on sites like ExchangeHut, but Lustig said that would ultimately raise prices by forcing scalpers to the streets, where asking prices would be much more random and secretive.
""So ?one guy could be selling [a ticket] for $100, and the person next to him could be selling it for $30, but the consumer will never know ?because it has to be so secretive,"" he said. ""That's what would happen if the Athletic Office tried to regulate sites like ExchangeHut and?craigslist and eBay.""
For now, lottery entrants can only wait and hope they will not have to negotiate through ExchangeHut.
